"STRIVE to enter by the Narrow Gate" (Lk. 13:24) “the gate not used by souls whose twisted love attempts to make the crooked way seem straight.” (Purgatorio, 10.1-3)

Friday, April 11, 2014

Charlemagne Holy Week Lenten Challenge II

Last Friday I issued the following Lenten Challenge to my fellow Catholics

let's observe the old time fast for just Holy Week. We'll make it simple and just follow two rules:

1) No meat
2) No eating before nightfall (or at least until "the seventh hour" - noon)

Charlemagne and his fellow eighth century Catholics kept this fast for
all of Lent (and abstained from other foods besides). Our challenge is just one week. What do you think?

As Holy Week starts this Sunday, I wanted to take a minute and look at some reasons to take up the challenge by reflecting on the writings of my patron of 2014, St. Josemaria Escriva.

All Christians know prayer is essential for living a good spirit-filled life. No less of an authority than St. Paul tells us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:17), a high standard indeed! Of course, many Christians, Catholic and non, seek to live full prayer lives, but St. Josemaria makes a powerful, and to many surprising, observation, "unless you mortify yourself you'll never be a prayerful soul." (The Way, 172). Why we might be tempted to ask. St. Josemaria answers, "no ideal becomes a reality without sacrifice. Deny yourself. It is so beautiful to be a victim!" (The Way, 175). This truth is a meditation on the very teaching of Christ, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." (Lk 9:23) Which leads St. Josemaria to remark, "don't complain if you suffer . It is the prized and valued stone that is polished." (Furrow, 235). Why is self imposed suffering, i.e. mortification, so aidful to the Christian faithful? Because it is the most effective way of battling what St. Paul called "sarx" (the flesh). "The body must be given a little less than it needs. Otherwise it will turn traitor." (The Way, 196). The end of Lent is the perfect time to ramp up our penance, our mortification, in preparation for the banquet of Easter... and in preparation for the Heavenly banquet that awaits those who persevere until the end (cf. Matt 24:13). Don't let such a great opportunity to grow in holiness pass.Pax Christi.

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The use of "he" as an inclusive generic pronoun on this blog:

"The use of the traditional inclusive generic pronoun "he" is a decision of language, not gender justice... I believe in the equal intelligence and value of women, but not in the intelligence or value of "political correctness," linguistic ugliness, grammatical inaccuracy, conceptual confusion, or dehumanizing pronouns."- Dr. Peter Kreeft, Socratic Logic

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"I am one of those people who are glad to have their own mistakes pointed out and glad to point out the mistakes of others, but who would just as soon have the first experience as the second; in fact I consider the first a greater gain, inasmuch as it is better to be relieved of very bad trouble oneself than to relieve another, and in my opinion no worse trouble can befall a man that to have a false belief about the subjects which we are now discussing. So, if you are of the same mind let us go on with the conversations but if you think that we ought to abandon it let us drop it at once and bring the argument to an end."

- Socrates, in Plato's Gorgias

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